At 27, if Eisenberg does wins for his thoroughly on-target performance, he’ll be the youngest winner in that category yet, beating 29 year-old Adrien Brody for “The Pianist.” Still, he’ll likely be facing stiff competition from 50 year-old Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”), 70 something Robert Duvall (“Get Low“), 30 something co-host James Franco (“127 Hours“) and, perhaps, 60 something Jeff Bridges (“True Grit,” a bit less stiff since he won last year and Oscar likes to spread the love around).

The Best Actress prize was equally interesting. Lesley Manville won for her extraordinary work in the upcoming “Another Year.” I’ve seen (and will be reviewing here), the latest from Mike Leigh. There’s no doubt that Manville did an absolutely remarkable job but her supremely needy, depressed, alcoholic character is often irritating to the point of distraction, on purpose. It hits closer to home because I think most of have known or have actually been (hopefully temporarily) people very much like her. Still, sometimes people tend to blame actors for playing characters they dislike or are made uncomfortable by. Regardless, she’s been noticed. At the press day, I half-jokingly suggested to Ms. Manville that she should work on her American accent.

Another heretofore far from world-famed actress who might consider studying up on U.S. dialects is Australian veteran performer Jacki Weaver. She was nominated for her magnetically squirm-inducing crime grandma in the effective thriller, “Animal Kingdom.” It’s the first time she’s been in a film to make a splash stateside since Peter Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” back before Jesse Eisenberg and James Franco were yet born.

Christian Bale is definitely looking like an Oscar contender with his Best Supporting Actor win for “The Fighter.” “Toy Story 3” won a very predictable Best Animated Feature prize and writer Chris Sparling won a far less predictable Best Original Screenplay award for the ultra-claustrophobic Ryan Reynolds showpiece, “Buried”

Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman,” which seems to be spearheading a campaign to make education a hotter political issue than it’s been recently, took the Best Documentary prize. Could Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) be on his way to another Best Documentary Oscar? Very possibly, though the documentary category is historically weird and iffy. In his favor: this is a traditional documentary and not, essentially, a “concert” film.

The Best Foreign Film winner is the French Cannes award winner, “Of Gods and Men.” It’s another winner with a certain amount of topical appeal as it deals with the issue of fundamentalism from the point of view of Christian monks.

Several films are notable by their almost complete absence, including “The King’s Speech,” “127 Hours” and possible dark horse, “True Grit.” (All three were in the group’s annual Top 10, however.) “The Black Swan,” which has been getting huge word of mouth where I live, anyhow, failed to even make that list. A complete list of the awards is below.

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Best Film: The Social Network

Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network

Best Actress: Lesley Manville, Another Year

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Foreign Language Film: Of Gods and Men

Best Documentary: Waiting for “Superman”

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Best Ensemble Cast: The Town

Breakthrough Performance: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone

Best Directorial Debut: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, Restrepo

Spotlight Award: Sylvain Chomet and Jacques Tati, The Illusionist

Best Original Screenplay: Chris Sparling, Buried

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Sofia Coppola for writing, directing, and producing Somewhere

William K. Everson Film History Award: Leonard Maltin

NBR Freedom of Expression: Fair Game, Conviction, Howl

Production Design Award: Dante Ferretti, Shutter Island

Ten Best Films (in alphabetical order)
Another Year
The Fighter
Hereafter
Inception
The King’s Speech
Shutter Island
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Five Best Foreign-Language Films (in alphabetical order)
I Am Love
Incendies
Life, Above All
Soul Kitchen
White Material

Five Best Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
A Film Unfinished
Inside Job
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Restrepo
The Tillman Story

Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
Animal Kingdom
Buried
Fish Tank
The Ghost Writer
Greenberg
Let Me In
Monsters
Please Give
Somewhere
Youth in Revolt

The smart money seems to be pretty positive that “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” will earn in the neighborhood of $20 million and so may end up winning the weekend. At least that’s what I’m reading via jolly Carl DiOrio and the more circumspect Ben Fritz.

The audience for the latest from Oliver Stone skews fairly older, not only because it’s a topical thriller from the bombastic but literate Stone, but because it’s a sequel to a hit movie that is — shockingly for some of us — old enough that 24 year-old co-star Shia LaBeouf was barely a toddler when it first came out. That may help with the film’s longevity since older audiences tend to take their time seeing a new movie. Also, a bit of extra publicity from Gekko-man Michael Douglas‘s well-publicized upbeat battle with cancer might add to awareness over the long term. The reviews, which also have a somewhat stronger effect on older viewers, are only meh-to-okay with somewhat better response from more blue-state-centric “top critics.”

“Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” is also doing better with the “cream of the crop” crowd than the critical hoi polloi, but interest from regular folks hasn’t been what the makers of this $50-60 million 3D animated production have been hoping for. The film is PG rated, but many feel it is excessively dark and violent for the kids. That may make it truer to the popular books it’s drawn from, and it’s certainly no surprise given that this is from Zack Snyder of “Watchmen” and “300.” Still, this will get at least some boost from the those 3D premium prices and is expected to make, I guess, between $15-20 million, though I personally find the character designs pretty unappealing and I wonder if others feel the same way.

The gurus are not optimistic when it comes to “You Again.” We fans of Kristen Bell are, it seems, once again being forced to wonder about this hugely skilled young actress’s bad luck, first with the early cancellation of the “Veronica Mars” television series, then somehow being saddled with the only uninteresting part in the otherwise first-rate “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and then to a series of roundly drubbed releases like this one, which is something considering the film’s rather amazing supporting cast.

Oddly, this comedy reunites her with Andy Fickman, the director of what I guess must be her best movie role so far, as the singing and dancing and unbelievably naive female lead of “Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical.” However, our own Jason Zingale’s very negative review is very much line with the majority of critics and audiences aren’t expected to like this one all that much better, with low expectations that still might end up covering its modest studio budget of $20 million. Still, no wonder Ms. Bell seems truly desperate to get that long discussed “Veronica Mars” movie off the ground.

“The Virginity Hit,” which has been in limited release, is expanding into 700 theaters this weekend. The mockumentary horny teenager flick had generated high hopes at one point and has been sponsored by Will Ferrell and his comedy partner Adam McKay, but those hopes have been scaled back once more people got a look at the thing, it seems. David Medsker roundly disliked it, but his slam is a love-letter compared to my Rotten Tomatoes pull quote of the week from Dustin Putnam:

Crass and detestable, a combination of American Pie, The Blair Witch Project and crap.

That, however, is not all because this weekend sees several notable limited releases. The highly buzzed and very well reviewed suspense one-man show for Ryan Reynolds and enormous cinematic challenge for director Rodrigo Cortés, “Buried,” opens in 11 theaters this weekend. There’s also the hugely divisive cinephile-bait, “Enter the Void,” a druggy fantasia about life after death from the ever controversial Gasper Noé, the acclaimed documentary about the should-be hot topic of education, “Waiting for Superman,” and two movies which I actually saw and reviewed myself, the free-speech docu-drama “Howl” starring James Franco as poet Allen Ginsberg and Woody Allen’s latest all-star outing, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” which I’m somewhat surprised to say I actually kind of recommend.

H/t First Showing.

* As per Nikki Finke, the early box office returns for “Inception” are looking good.

* Though I was a big fan of “The West Wing” while he worked on it, my one complaint with Aaron Sorkin’s abandoned TV classic was that it was a bit rosy in how it viewed politics and politicians. Currently flying high as the screenwriter of the upcoming docudramas, “The Social Network” and “Moneyball,” he was almost the Gene Roddenberry of political drama in imagining a relatively ideal world that could be, but probably never would be. I don’t think excess positivity is going to be an issue in his movie directorial debut, as he’ll be covering the John Edwards mega-debacle. To think I contemplated voting for/volunteering for the egocentric jerkwad who, had he succeeded, would have sunk a party and a nation on the altar of his ego.

* I don’t think I’ll really know what I think of Ryan Reynolds’ CGI-aided Green Lantern costume until I see it in the movie.

* Things have been hopping over at our sister site, Bullz-Eye.com. Earlier in the week Will Harris, with a little assistance from one or two other people who will remain nameless, took a look at 25 cinematic swan songs from film acting greats. Very cool (except for seven of them, which I’m unable to judge). Also, today, Will had a chat with his friend and rising young star, Dileep Rao, currently being seen in “Inception.”

* There may be no justice in the world, but Roman Polanski’s next movie is already being prepped, and it sounds good. It’s the film version of the London/Broadway hit play “God of Carnage.” Being as it’s a dark comedy/drama, it sounds right up Polanski’s alley. Also, Polanski’s 1994 film version of Ariel Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden” was one of the most seamless stage-to-film translations I’ve ever seen.

* My high school history teacher, who was also a saxophone playing jazz fan on the side, always used to say that of all the rock music figures, the one he was sure wouldn’t last beyond another couple of decades in terms of popularity was Janis Joplin. Her super-gritty style was just too of the late sixties moment, he theorized. Indeed, she seems to be one of the less popular of the rock superstars of that era today. Well, director Fernando Meirelles of “City of God” and Amy Adams — a top-flight actress who is way cute to be playing the weather-worn Joplin  — will be hoping to disprove that theory with a new biopic.

* Okay, so we’ve got “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” so why not Cain and Abel with Vampires (and Will Smith)?

* I like the sound of this: Stanley Tucci, who obviously gets along very well with Meryl Streep, will direct her and Tina Fey in a mother daughter comedy.

* The Playlist apparently wants to make me happy. First, they report that the long-awaited DVD of the pre-prepared exploitation double-bill, “Grindhouse,” as it was originally presented in theaters is coming this October. Second, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is apparently planning to appear in some kind of a musical. Interesting.

I’m just annoyed that I missed his rendition of the Donald O’Connor “Make ‘Em Laugh” number from “Singin’ in the Rain” on SNL last year and it’s gone from Hulu for some reason. Moment of rank and utterly baseless speculation here: Could a team-up with fellow three-namer Neil Patrick Harris be in the cards? “Dr. Horrible and Dr. Horribler” perhaps? Forget I said that.